The present invention relates to a device for articulating a plate or blade, which moves in an angular manner and pivots on its support. An example of such an articulation occurs, inter alia, in switches having wetted contacts and which are magnetically controlled.
The invention will be described in a specific manner with respect to the case of an electrical switch, without this constituting a limitation of the inventive scope.
Switches having contacts wetted by a conductive liquid, generally in the form of mercury of an amalgam are commonly known in the art as mercury wetted switches. In its best known form, such switches comprise a system of connected metal blades, whereof at least one has a certain flexibility, sealed into a glass envelope into which has been introduced an adequate quantity of mercury for wetting the blades. The main advantage of such switches is to offer a very good electrical contact without any deterioration to the contacting surfaces, because the latter are wetted by mercury, which regenerates the surfaces of the blades. However, when such switches use glass envelopes they have a certain number of disadvantages. Thus, in order to obtain an adequate flexibility of the moving blade, the latter must have a certain length linked with a certain thinness, so that the resulting device is relatively long, e.g. 2 cm. This is contrary to the present tendency towards miniaturisation made necessary by the increasing complexity of electronic systems, such as, for example, telephone exchanges or professional equipment.
In order to meet the demands of industry, mercury wetted switches must have small dimensions, a sensitivity to low currents so that they can be controlled, for example, by integrated circuits, a lack of sensitivity to vibrations included in all equipment acceptance testing standards and for cost reasons the need for a minimum of mechanical adjustments and settings, which increases their reliability because the fewer the adjustments and settings, the fewer the possible causes of misadjustments.